Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has chided President MuhammaduBuhari over replacement of the sacked National Intelligence Agency(NIA) Director General, Ambassador Ayo Oke with Ahmed Rufai Abubakar,a northerner, saying; “The President has further demonstrated toNigerians that he is an unrepentant sectional leader, who does notcare about the feelings of people from other parts of the country.”

The governor said; “With the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar asthe NIA Director General, all heads of security agencies are nownortherners and the question is, is this what those who enshrinedfederal character in our constitution envisaged?”

The governor's Special Assistant on public Communications and NewMedia, Lere Olayinka, quoted him as saying in a statement issued inAdo Ekiti on Thursday, that seeing what President Buhari has turnedthe country to, the forefathers of Nigeria, who laid the foundation ofthe country on equity, justice and fairness will be lamenting whereverthey are now.”

He said; “Ambassador Ayo Oke was removed from office the same dayBabachir Lawal was removed as Secretary to the Government of theFederation. While Lawal's replacement came from his home State, Oke'sreplacement came from the north. That is unacceptable.”

Governor Fayose, who reminded Nigerians of the President Buhari'sdirective that the World Bank should shift its focus to the northernregion of Nigeria, maintained that “because of the President'snepotism, religious bigotry and favouritism, Nigeria is now moredivided than ever before.

He said it remained on record that President of the World Bank Group,Jim Yong Kim reportedly said that in his very first meeting withPresident Buhari, he (Buhari) said specifically that he would like theWorld Bank to shift its focus to the northern region of Nigeria.

The governor said “President Buhari has consistently demonstrated thathe is an ethnic champion, a religious bigot and the number onepromoter of disunity in Nigeria. This he has done again with theappointment of yet another northerner as the NIA Director General.

“Even at a point, the National Chairman of the President's party, theAll Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun had to openly fault theappointments made by the President, saying that as many as threepeople were appointed from one ward in a local government in thenorth.

“The implication of what the President has done is that, when SecurityCouncil meeting is held today, apart from one or two insignificantpeople, those in the meeting will be people from one section of thecountry.

“Even para-military agencies are headed by people from PresidentBuhari's section of the country. This is unfair.”

Reminding Nigerians of his earlier warnings that President Buhari wasoperating as a president of the Northern Nigeria only and the theappointments made by the President negated the principle of federalcharacter, Governor Fayose said; “Those who argued then that thePresident made the appointments on merit should come to the open totell Nigerians, especially those from the south that there is no onethat merited appointment as Director General of NIA.

“Like I said before, those politicians, who painted the picture of achanged President Buhari to Nigerians before the 2015 presidentialelection must have seen now that he (Buhari) can never change from anethnic champion to a nationalist,” Governor Fayose said.